Page 38 of Luka

He’s going to kill me.

A sour taste fills my mouth as my veins flood with adrenaline, but the most tortured part of this is not being able to move my limbs. Not being able tofight.

I see Piper in my mind, see her struggle, and can’t help but see the irony that I was right about having the same death but wrong about my murderer. The two biggest mistakes I’ve made in my life involved asking people for help. First with Piper, now with this man.

Just when all hope slips away, the door downstairs bangs open. “Leo!” Tall shouts, the door slamming a moment later.

I dart my eyes to the ladder, my body jolting with one last shot of energy, not to break from the brother’s hold but to alert my captor. The one I now hope to be my savior.

Tall yells Leo’s name again as he comes up the ladder, but Leo doesn’t take his hand off my neck. Not until Tall puts him in a chokehold of his own and lifts.

“Let go,” he commands.

Leo chokes before his hand releases my neck. I gasp wildly, my breaths wheezing through my sore throat as my eyes spill fresh tears. I choke on sobs before gasping some more, scooting back as far as I can against the headboard.

Leo’s hands reach for Tall behind him while his face turns purple, his body bucking to get up from the bed, but Tall holds him still. His arm squeezes him securely in a chokehold until I think he’s going to kill his own brother, but he doesn’t have the rage Leo had on his face.

“Calm down,” Tall says, his voice low like he’s trying to be soothing.

Leo continues to thrash before finally relenting, his hands lowering to his lap. Tall pulls him backward before releasing him to fall on the floor where Leo alternates between gasping and coughing.

When Tall’s eyes meet mine, I can’t help but cower. In a way, he just saved my life. But in another way, I just got a horrifying preview of the way it will eventually end.

Tall finds the tape Leo removed and hurries to slap it back over my mouth.

“You need to stay calm,” Tall says, his back turned to Leo, although I’m certain he’s speaking to him. “Whatever she told you?—”

“That’s her,” Leo croaks, moving to a sitting position on the floor. I can’t believe he’s going to breeze past the fact that his brother almost strangled him. He stabs an accusing finger at me. “That’s the immigrant Piper picked up. The last person to have seen her. What thefuckis she doing in your apartment?”

What?

His eyes blinking open, Tall looks as puzzled as I feel. He slowly sits on the bed, his hands clasping in his lap while we both seem to try to make sense of Leo’s words.

The immigrant Piper picked up… The last person to have seen her…

He’s worried about Piper.

He thinks I know what happened.

And he doesnotknow Tall had anything to do with Piperorme.

Then how would he…

My mind flashes back to Piper when we were in her car, her fingers tapping away at her phone. Maybe she was texting someone, telling them about me?

But why would she…

I shrink when I figure it out. For some reason, maybe I imagine it, but there’s tension in the room I don’t remember feeling before.

“Where the fuck is my girlfriend?”he’d asked.

He was talking about Piper.

He’sher boyfriend. Not Tall. Or maybe they both are. But I don’t think Leo knows that.

“First of all,” Tall says at last. “Don’t be dramatic. The girl isn’tthe last person to have seen Piper. Just because she’s gone doesn’t mean anything bad has happened to her. But itdoesmean you need to let her go. It’s been twenty-four hours, and she’s fucking you up this badly… Take that as a sign. You aren’t good for each other.”

“The girl,” Leo seethes, climbing to his feet. “Your apartment.Why?” His fists clench at his sides as he stands like a giant looking over Tall and me. I start to shift to the other side of the bed, but when he pins me with a stare, I still.

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